*** This is from an engraving in Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia, page 329. Mr. Howe obtained the drawing from a lady of Williamsburg, to whose patriotic taste our countrymen are indebted for a representation of the edifice whieh was the focus of rebellion in Virginia.
* The original plan of Williamsburg was in the form of a cipher, made of the letters W and M, the initials of William and Mary. Its site was known as the Middle Plantation while Jamestown was the capital. Situated upon a ridge nearly equidistant from the York and James Rivers, it was an eligible place for a town, and there Governor Nicholson established the capital in 1698. It was the residence of the royal governors, and the capital of the colony, until the War of the Revolution, and was, from that circumstance, the center of Virginia refinement. Yet, in its palmiest days, the population of Williamsburg did not exceed twenty-five hundred. Many of its present inhabitants are descendants of the old stock of Virginia aristocracy; and an eminent seat of learning being located there, no place South is more distinguished for taste and refinement than Williamsburg, in proportion to its population.
Culpepper.—Lord Howard and Nicholson.—Federal Union proposed.—Orkney and his Deputies.—Spottswood.
Virginia to his two favorites, Arlington and Culpepper. (a) Two years after this a 1675 grant, Culpepper, who possessed the whole domain between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers, was appointed governor for life. He was proclaimed soon after the departure of Berkeley. Virginia was thus changed into a proprietary government, like Maryland and Pennsylvania. Culpepper came to Virginia in 1680, and was more intent upon enriching himself than advancing the prosperity of the colonists. He was speedily impoverishing Virginia, when the grant was recalled. (b) He was deprived of his office, and b 1684 the province again became a royal demesne. Arlington had already assigned his rights to Culpepper. The name of the latter is ignoble in the annals of that colony, yet it is perpetuated by the name of a county given in his honor, a distinction awarded generally to men whose actions were praiseworthy.
Lord Howard, of Effingham, who succeeded Culpepper as governor, was not more popular; for he, too, was governed by avaricious motives, and practiced meaner acts to accomplish his purposes of gain than his predecessor. Desiring to please his royal master, he put all penal laws in full force, particularly those against printing and the restrictions of the Navigation Act. The bigot, James the Second, the successor of Charles, continued Effingham in office; but when that monarch was driven from the throne, (c) the governor returned to England. William the Third reappointed him, but with the stipulation c 1688 that he should remain in England, and a deputy should exercise his functions in Virginia. His deputy was Francis Nicholson, a man of genius and taste, who came to Virginia in 1690. Two years afterward, Sir Edmund Andross, the infamous tool of James the Second, was made governor, and succeeded Nicholson. He administered the government badly until 1698, when he was recalled, and Nicholson was reinstated. On the return of that officer to Virginia, he moved the seat of government to the Middle Plantations, and Williamsburg was thenceforth the capital of the province for eighty years.
Governor Nicholson, who was a bold and ambitious man, conceived a scheme for uniting all the Anglo-American colonies. His plan was similar in its intended results to that of Andross, attempted twelve years before, when James issued a decree for uniting the New England colonies. Nicholson's ostensible object was the mutual defense of all the colonies against the encroachments of the French on the north, and the Indians made hostile by them along the frontiers. He submitted his plan to the king, who heartily approved of it, and recommended the measure to the colonial assemblies. Virginia refused to listen to any such scheme, and Nicholson's ambitious dream was dissolved in a moment. Greatly chagrined, he villified the Virginians; impressed William and Mary with an idea that they were disloyal; and represented to the ministers of Queen Anne (d) that they were "imbued d 1704 with republican notions and principles, such as ought to be corrected and lowered in time." He memorialized the queen to reduce all the American colonies under a viceroy, and establish a standing army among them, to be maintained at their own expense, declaring "that those wrong, pernicious notions were improving daily, not only in Virginia, but in all her majesty's other governments." Anne and her ministers did not approve of his scheme, and the Virginians becoming restive under his administration, he was recalled. 1704
The Earl of Orkney succeeded Nicholson as governor, but exercised the functions of the office through deputies. He enjoyed the sinecure for thirty-six years. His first deputies were Mott and Jennings; the first remaining in office one year, and the other four years. In 1710, Jennings was succeeded by Sir Alexander Spottswood, * one of the most acceptable
* In 1757, a son of Colonel Spottswood, who was with a company scouting for Indians on the frontier, wandered from his companions, and was lost. His remains were found near Fort Duquesne. An elegaic poem, founded on the circumstances, was published in Martin's Miscellany, in London. The writer assumes that he was killed by the Indians, and says,
"Courageous youth! were now thine honor'd sire
"May Forbes yet live the cruel debt to pay,
To breathe again, and rouse his wonted fire,
And wash the blood of Braddock's field away;
Nor French nor Shawnee durst his rage provoke,
Then fair Ohio's blushing waves may tell
From great Potomac's spring to Roanoke."
How Briton's fought, and how each hero fell." *
* See page 478.